That night, shock rocked the imperial court of the Xuantian Dynasty.
Imperial Preceptor Tang Chongqing was dead, and the Li family's charge of treason vanished into thin air.
The reigning emperor was temporarily stripped of his throne by an immortal master of the Great Xia Sword Sect.
In the rainy night, Li Guanqi held up an umbrella and slowly melted into the downpour.
The moment he left the city, Li Guanqi sought out a cave to tend to his wounds.
Stripping off his clothes, he sprinkled golden sore ointment over his injuries, his face somewhat pale.
Swallowing a healing pill, he finally breathed a slight sigh of relief as the yuan qi surged through his body.
Leaning against the stone wall, Li Guanqi felt a lingering sense of dread.
"Who would have thought a Foundation Establishment cultivator would be so troublesome? That yuan power barrier was truly a nuisance."
Yet by his reckoning, Tang Chongqing was likely an unaffiliated rogue cultivator.
If the man had truly hailed from a reputable background, he would never have been ignorant of such a cardinal taboo in the cultivation world.
Moreover, his swordplay had lacked all discipline and technique, relying entirely on the ability to manipulate flying weapons to face his enemies.
More importantly, Li Guanqi felt that his opponent's yuan power had not been particularly robust; he had very likely chosen to establish his foundation at the ninth layer of Qi Refinement.
Feeling the emptiness in his dantian, Li Guanqi simply sat cross-legged and began to cultivate.
At some point, the sword spirit appeared behind him, nodding slightly.
It had to be said that Li Guanqi's tenacity and dedication on the path of cultivation were truly rare.
Furthermore, after such an intense battle, Li Guanqi had gained a glimmer of insight.
Particularly when striking with his sword, he would no longer deliberately pursue flashy maneuvers.
A single fatal strike might well be the superior choice, and it would drastically conserve the consumption of yuan qi within his body.
Early the next morning, Li Guanqi rushed to the nearest dock.
The cloud boat parted the sky as it flew, granting Li Guanqi a rare moment of rest.
Just then, however, a streak of light flashed past the side of the cloud boat.
Sensing something, Li Guanqi opened his eyes just in time to see Xu Zhengjie, the Second Elder of Tianlei Peak, slowly tear open the cloud boat's defensive barrier.
The boatmaster hurriedly bowed and greeted him. "Greetings, Immortal Master!"
Even the other passengers aboard the cloud boat rose one after another to pay their respects.
With a gentle wave of his hand, Xu Zhengjie lifted everyone back to their feet, then flashed over to Li Guanqi's side with a grin.
"Brat, what happened out there? Word has it a Foundation Establishment cultivator threw the court into turmoil?"
Li Guanqi nodded and said softly, "Did dealing with this matter truly require you to make the trip in person, Elder Xu?"
Xu Zhengjie let out a hearty laugh. "Indeed. That Foundation Establishment cultivator is a minor matter; what's more important is selecting a new emperor.
"How about it? You weren't hurt while scouting for information, were you? Did that cultivator spot you?"
Li Guanqi shrugged and said, "Well... Second Elder, that Foundation Establishment cultivator... I killed him."
"WHAT?!"
Xu Zhengjie's voice turned shrill, shooting up several octaves.
Then, his expression turning solemn, Xu Zhengjie said in a deep voice, "Brat, you can't joke about this sort of thing!
"A Qi Refinement cultivator like you killed a Foundation Establishment cultivator?"
Li Guanqi answered honestly, "He wasn't all that strong..."
"Even if he wasn't strong, he was still a Foundation Establishment cultivator!"
Before Xu Zhengjie could wrap his head around it, Li Guanqi leaned closer and said, "In that case, the mission points should be considerably higher, right?
"Think about it: I took care of that cultivator, so you can just head over and pick a new emperor directly.
"You won't even have to lift a finger, so you ought to give me a little bonus, don't you think?"
Xu Zhengjie laughed uproariously. "I knew it! Part of the reason you withdrew to the outer sect back then was definitely because of the point rewards from the outer sect assessments!
"Old Li refused to believe it at the time, insisting you only did it to put his mind at ease.
"Fine, splendidly done!
"Don't make a fuss about this, either. Once you're back, go straight to the Mission Pavilion to collect your points."
Li Guanqi grinned, thinking to himself, *Tch, every bit of money has to be scraped together, and look—here it comes.*
With that, Xu Zhengjie cast out his flying sword, preparing to leave. Li Guanqi bowed and said, "Respectful farewell, Second Martial Uncle."
Xu Zhengjie suddenly remembered something and turned his head. "Brat, aren't you close to reaching Foundation Establishment as well?"
Li Guanqi started slightly, then thought of his bottleneck, which had already loosened, and nodded.
The old man looked at him with an expectant gaze. "Then make your preparations early. Perhaps for the spirit ruins tournament... we will have to rely entirely on you this year."
With that, the elder gently tore open the barrier once more, stepped onto his flying sword, and flew off toward the Xuantian Dynasty.
After the old man left, everyone aboard the cloud boat looked at Li Guanqi with a trace of awe.
Yet seeing him sitting in meditation with his eyes closed, not a single soul dared approach him to strike up a conversation.
Li Guanqi disembarked at Minning Dock, the stop closest to the Great Xia Sword Sect.
Street vendors all bowed slightly to the young man carrying the sword casket on his back.
Li Guanqi smiled, wasting no time as he hurried back to the Great Xia Sword Sect.
Just as he had expected, the points awarded for investigating the Xuantian Dynasty were tripled.
The steward personally transferred the points to Li Guanqi, his eyes glittering with keen interest as he whispered, "Martial Nephew Li, did you really kill a Foundation Establishment cultivator?"
With an inscrutable smile, Li Guanqi whispered back, "Guess."
Returning to his courtyard, Li Guanqi spotted Yu Sui'an from afar, standing on the roof and craning her neck in every direction.
Seeing him return, she leaped down from the roof in a single bound.
"Li Guanqi!! Why are you only coming back now! What took you so long!"
Then she extended both hands eagerly, opening and closing her little fingers.
Li Guanqi laughed heartily. "I brought them for you~ Come on, let's go inside to eat."
The two of them, one tall and one small, went inside the courtyard residence.
"Tsk, tsk, feast your eyes on Wangyue City's big meat buns! And drunken..."
"Ahem, and some rather special pastries..."
Yu Sui'an bit off nearly half a bun in one mouthful, squinting her eyes as she mumbled, "Sho yummy!!"
"Alright, you eat."
"Where are you going?"
"The Spirit Ascension Platform."
Arriving at the Spirit Ascension Platform, Li Guanqi checked the points stored in his jade slip.
Counting the six hundred points awarded this time, he had a total of one thousand eight hundred points.
Such an amount was enough for him to open a Black-grade Spirit Ascension Platform for an entire month.
When he reached the platform, he gritted his teeth and spent seven hundred points to open a Black-grade cultivation chamber.
Disciples of the Great Xia Sword Sect hardly had time to run into each other; every single one of them was cultivating with utmost diligence.
Because of the sect's unique assessment system, anyone ranked near the bottom twice in a row would be cast out of the inner sect.
Thus, within the inner sect that outer disciples so deeply envied, the atmosphere of cultivation was actually far more intense.
Everyone walked with hurried steps, rarely stopping for even a moment, practically running wherever they went.
Under such an atmosphere, even Li Guanqi felt immense pressure, especially whenever he saw senior martial brothers flying through the sky on swords.
Li Guanqi clenched his teeth and thought to himself, *During this seclusion, I must break through to the thirteenth layer!*
"By the way, sword spirit, are you there?"
"What is it?"
"Er... mind your tone a little~"
"I want to ask: what exactly is the deal with the spirit ruins?"
Chapter 61